Mona, the mullet and McLachlan

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Jibes, he's had a few. There was the spectacular mullet of his
Neighbours character Henry. Then there was the musical
curiosity known as the band Check One Two and the song
Mona. Comedy shows such as Fast Forward and
The Comedy Company satirised him mercilessly.

But if there's to be any ridicule of Craig McLachlan, he'd
rather do it himself, thank you - even though he thought Fast
Forward's job on him was "funny as hell" and the Comedy
Company's lampooning of Mona was "a fantastic
pisstake".

"I love it! I have contemporaries who have been troubled by it,
but as you can tell, I'm up for anything," he says. "People can
have a dig at Craig McLachlan and Check One Two, but no one does it
better than me, because I was there!"

McLachlan is preparing to relive his fame warts-and-all in his
one-man Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Lifting
the Lid, which begins its four-night run tonight at the
Umbrella Revolution in Federation Square.

"It's pretty autobiographical. You get the idea pretty early on
that I'm not precious," says the now softer-coiffured 39-year-old.
Meeting the gregarious former plumber, his lack of preciousness is
quickly apparent. A group of drinkers recognise him, point and
smile. The next moment he's bounded over to joke with the guys and
cuddle up to the giggling girls for mobile-phone happy snaps.

While he was once known only as the big brother to Kylie
Minogue's Charlene on Neighbours, McLachlan - like many
former alumni of "that show", as he calls it - has since broadened
his scope remarkably. He spent years in London playing Danny Zuko
in Grease: the Musical and is preparing to reprise the
role in a restaging of the Australian production he also starred in
in 1998.

He has been in many films, such as the new Hating Alison
Ashley with fellow former Neighbour Delta Goodrem.
Last year he played Michael Chamberlain in an Azaria mini-series,
Through My Eyes.

But as Neighbours enters its 21st year (and McLachlan
doesn't rule out a celebratory guest return by Henry), the only
mullet remaining in McLachlan's life is his band, Mullet - which
still plays Mona.

"We'd get lynched if we didn't play it," he says. "As much as
people like to label it the worst song ever, it occupies a
curiously special niche in people's memories."

As does Henry's mullet, which also lives on - albeit in a coffee
table book. "I'm referred to apparently as the 'Adonis mullet',"
says McLachlan. You have to laugh. And, really, he doesn't
mind.

Lifting the Lid is at the Umbrella Revolution,
Federation Square, from tonight.